think debates don't have an impact, or do you think tonight actually could if mitt romney comes out -- >> i think it will have some impact. >> some impact, but i actually think that's really when the american people, for the first time, see the two candidates and really start to make their minds up. what do you think? >> you know, first of all, i think there's a consensus view that no matter what polls we're looking at today, it's going to be a jump-ball election three or four weeks from now. it's going to be within two or three points. it's that close out in the country. i think tonight's debate, though, matters a great -- >> let me stop you there, mike. so you do think it's still going to be a jump ball because obviously mitt romney's had a horrific september. his own people say, man, what a horrible month. but we still have a long way to go here. you think it's still going to be a jump ball? >> yes, i do. i do. because of two elements that polls can't really get to, the level of anxiety in this country about daily life and about the immediate future of our economy, and the level

mitt romney down ten points a month ago, after the debate, he's down, it's within the margin of error. this is supposed to be the state where the grand experiment of the auto bailout took place. and there's no way mitt romney could win that state. basically tied right now. and again, whether michigan ends up in his cone or not, this shows a huge thing taking place. we've got to assume it's taking place in florida, north carolina, virginia. i'd be shocked if mitt romney wasn't ahead in a lot of these swing states by the time these polls come out. >> and it forces the obama campaign to allocate resources to places like michigan, which they probably thought they had pretty faithfully in hand. but look, the poll numbers on women are really interesting. i have always believed that most of us in the news business very often underestimate the impact of the economy on women as a voting group. >> yeah. always talking about abortion and a lot of other social issues. because, you know what? it's the same thing too with a lot of gay voters that will come up to me and go, listen, i care about gay

it was simply a debate on economic policy and political performance, clearly governor romney won. >> right. >> what it also shows, by the way, all these people who said debates don't matter. >> they just might. we'll see. >> willie, we can't underline the point too much here. we always try to sort -- my wife this summer, her republican friends were very concerned about the radical direction that the republican party seemed to be taking in the primaries. and same thing with gay voters. i'm not saying the gay voters don't care about marriage equality, but we oversimplify it so much. and all americans, i mean, want this economy to be turned around. and if president obama looks weak in the debate as he did, as most people say, that's going to have an impact. i said it last week, a rising tide lifts all boats. and i said before the debate, if he had a great performance, a rising tide would lift all boats. and we are seeing here that a rising tide has lifted all boats. i said that three times just now. >> the next time -- >> i hope i did it. a rising tide does lift all boats. go ahead,

attack with press scrutiny and mitt romney making the case should be part of the debate. and i think will be because this story does have a lot of unanswered questions. >> mika, as we've been saying for some time both on and off the air, if the president was george w. bush and he had said that the middle east going up in flames was a, quote, bump in the road, george w. bush would have been absolutely skewered by the press. >> at the same time, is it fair to say that the romney campaign and mitt romney himself have seized upon things too quickly and almost looked a little almost like a dog pulling on someone's leg? >> they've been hand-fisted. >> let me ask you this. >> they made a mistake. in fact, even internally inside the romney campaign, they know now that the libyan press conference, the day after, they will all tell you, was an absolute mistake, and that showed up in the polls. >> here's my question, then. because congressman peter king is calling on susan rice to step down, to resign as u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and yesterday, here's the response as they try and move forward

debates, do you think? is it something we're going to hear about? and how will mitt romney deal with it? he's had months and years you could argue to figure out his answer on it. how does he address that tomorrow night? >> it's been one of the weaknesses of the romney campaign, they did not explore fundamental weaknesses, including health care, and one of the reasons is that as we all know, had many pieces that were created in massachusetts when romney was there. and so he's been reticent to engage over that fight over health care because he feels he can't give a full-throated critique of the bill because it does have pieces, like the mandate and other pieces that he had in massachusetts. so it makes it hard for him to wage that war. i think what he'll do tomorrow night is just try to make a case that's much more precise about where the president sort of let the american people down. that'll be his words. he'll say, you know, on the economy, on his failure to get immigration reform. on his inability to change washington and bring politicians together to tackle issues like the grand b